Numerical analysis of a testing technique to investigate the dynamic crack propagation in armour ceramic.

Ceramic materials are numerically studied to understand their fracturing behaviour upon dynamic conditions and impact loadings. During a ballistic impact of a projectile against a ceramic armour system, an intense fragmentation composed of numerous oriented cracks, develops in the target. It is the reason why the conditions of crack initiation, propagation and arrest in these materials need to be investigated. In the present work, a dynamic testing configuration has been developed in order to characterise the dynamic fracture toughness (KI,d), considering a single crack that propagates from the specimen notch tip. The "Rockspall" testing technique, which employs a two-notch specimen loaded in a spalling experiment, was used. Thanks to the reflection of a compression wave into a tensile load from the sample free-end, a single dynamic crack is triggered. The sample geometry is optimised by means of a series of FE numerical simulations involving an anisotropic damage model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]